Downtown La Grange Resident Upset With Parking, Calls It 'Failure To Many Levels'

LA GRANGE, IL – A downtown La Grange resident has nowhere to park her car most of the day unless she changes her spot every three hours.

Resident Kelly McDonald, who moved into a downtown Burlington Avenue apartment in July 2025, said her landlord told her to buy an overnight parking pass to use a village lot. She said police officers told her to "just park in the corner" and they would ignore it.

That worked for a year until she received two parking tickets earlier this month.

She was informed she needed a day pass, but the village had none available. She was put on a waiting list.

McDonald, who said she often works remotely, described the arrangement as "very, very inconvenient."

"I'm currently on a wait list, waiting to be able to park in the neighborhood I live in, already having paid $600 to the village," McDonald told the Village Board at its meeting Monday.

During last weekend's Oktoberfest celebration, McDonald said she parked at the airport, saying she had been distressed over the situation.

"This is a failure on many levels," McDonald said.

In response, Charity Jones, the village's community development director, said the tickets were the result of the village's new license plate reader, which makes parking officers more efficient.

"There certainly were a lot of unclear communications previously," Jones said.

She pointed to the village's new website page devoted to parking, which includes interactive maps.

Jones also said the village doesn't have enough parking for all downtown residents.

When Village President Mark Kuchler suggested a new West End parking lot, Jones said it was intended to alleviate parking issues in that area.

The new lot, she said, will include 30 around-the-clock permits available to more than 100 residential units on the West End.

McDonald said she was not the only person suffering from unclear communications.

"If I had been told these things at the beginning, I probably would not have rented this apartment, or I would have gotten on the wait list well ahead of the time it took two policemen to ticket me," McDonald said. "There is nowhere for me to park. Do I get rid of my car? I have to drive to work."

She said she was left to change her car's position every three hours.

But Kuchler cast doubt on that option.

"I'm not positive that's going to work," he said. "I have had that happen to me. You have to move it x number of blocks, so I don't want to suggest that there is a policy that allows you to move it four times a day."

"What else would I do?" McDonald asked.

Kuchler said, "I agree. We're going to have people who are going to have to find daytime parking. Where that's at, I don't have the answer."

Trustee Beth Augustine said the village didn't want residents to learn things the hard way.

"We've created a lot of good change in our parking situation," she said. "But sometimes those changes inadvertently cause new problems."

She suggested the village consider making space available to downtown residents on the top level of the parking deck next to Village Hall or the unused Metra parking spots on the West End.